Life After Balanchine

By

Robert Greskovic

Updated Nov. 2, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

W hat a difference 21/2 decades make. Twenty-five years ago, under the artistic direction of George Balanchine, New York City Ballet celebrated its silver anniversary with the publication of a shiny coffee-table book. The company that Balanchine ran with Lincoln Kirstein was born in 1948 and had grown steadily. At this milestone it was larger and performing longer seasons in a theater built to accommodate big audiences. But it was also living amid a "dance boom," with ballet dominated by impresario Sol Hurok and his presentation of "star filled" foreign attractions. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf...